Sophie's Story

      After we checked out of the St James last week, we went for a stroll around town. I wanted to stop at the bakery. Red Wing has a really good one and worth a visit if you are in that part of town. I wanted to get of load of their cranberry walnut bread and maybe some kind of pastry.      As we walked toward the door, there was a large sing advertising paczki (punch-key or poonch -key). According to the internet and the sign on the bakery window, they are a fried, filled pastry of Polish origin. It was a way of using up eggs, milk, butter and sugar before the Lenten fast. They are larger than a typical Bismarck donut and made with richer dough. They are filled with fruit filling, cream, custard or chocolate. They can be frosted or dusted with powder sugar.     I'm always ready to try new things so I looked at the selection when we got inside. There were at least seven different kinds of fillings to choose from. I chose cherry, which is my favo...

     This year I wanted to do something special for C's birthday. We rarely do anything outside of a nice dinner somewhere. Sometimes I had to work on his birthday. Once I got laid off the day before his birthday. I really felt that he deserves something more.     Every time we go to Red Wing, we pass by the St. James Hotel. We've been inside a couple of times to look at exhibits that were there after Thanksgiving. We once had lunch on the patio of a restaurant inside the hotel. We always wondered what it would be like to stay there.     As a birthday present to C, I asked if he'd want to celebrate his birthday by staying at the St. James.  I had most of a week off work so it would be the perfect time. We made the reservation for a room with a whirlpool.     When the time came we packed our bag and headed to Red Wing. We were both excited for our overnight trip. When we got into Red Wing, we stopped at the confectionary for a hot chocola...

      Uncle Joe, my mom's younger brother, passed away early this morning, he was 78. A week ago he suffered a massive stroke, the same type that killed his mother, my grandmother, nearly 37 years earlier. No one was expecting this.      We weren't real close to him or his family as they lived in Virginia and didn't visit often. A few times my cousins were sent to stay on the farm for all or part of the summer. I remember we had some good times. We drove out to Virginia to visit them once when I was seven. All I remember was grandma cooking eggs in an electric skillet in out hotel room and seeing a crab on the beach.     When I graduated from college and got my pharmacist license he made a remark that I was depriving a man of the ability to support his family. It was upsetting to hear him say that. I didn't speak to him for a long time.  I realized much later that the idea of a woman being a pharmacist was an unheard of thing to him. Also I m...

      We were having wonderful time on New Year's Eve. C made the best steak bites he'd ever made. The new cheeseball recipe I'd made was really good. The chip dip mix I made was also tasty. We watched the movie 'Conclave' and had just finished the movie 'Grease'. (The original one with Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta.) I decided it was time to clean the litterbox before we broke out the sparkling juice for a toast.     I turned on the light and walked into the laundry room where the litterboxes are. I noticed a large puddle of water around the hot water heater, furnace pedestal and a corner of the room. I walked out again and told C. The good time we were having came to a grinding halt. The water heater had leaked before, but not this bad. We we planning to purchase another one, but were holding off until after the first of the year. C checked around the hot water heater carefully. When he didn't see anything coming from the bottom of the heater he...

      My alarm went off at 5 AM as it always does. After going to bed at close to 1AM, my first thought was to turn it off and go back to sleep. I couldn't do it. The cats needed to be fed and I didn't want to interrupt my usual morning routine.     I gave each cat half a can of wet food which is their treat twice a week and on holidays. While they ate I took down all our old calendars. We usually have three. Two of them are traditional hanging calendars in the kitchen and in our computer room. The other is a page a day calendar in the kitchen. I buy different page a day calendars every year. This year's calendar is inspiring quotes from women.     I gathered the old calendars up and put them in the recycling bin. Then I put up the new ones and threw any any nonrecyclable packaging.     As most of you who read this know, New Years is my favourite holiday. Last night we celebrated with an assortment of dips, chips, a cheese ball, some vegetabl...